Steve Cooper - New Manager

[J. James]

It's been my view for a while that to make it as a pro footballer at any level, you need to be brilliant, say 90%.

top prem players on this scale 97%

Regular prem players 93%

Managers are pretty much the same, IOW not much between any of them, its the small % that makes the difference but what makes a massive difference is - surprise surprise - money for talented players and good recruitment.

 

Both of which seem to be a little lacking atm.

 

Swapping managers is a massive risk and should only be undertaken in extremis, and that is patently not right now !

[J. James]

22 minutes ago, OntarioFox said:

The footy has been garbage at times. I do a bit of sick in my mouth seeing Soumare not only in the squad in 2024, but getting gametime. The freezing out of Ricky P baffles the mind.

Good post, this is baffling sure, but how often have we seen teams selected as eleven great individuals but not a TEAM - (I'm looking at you England national team).

If Cooper has a style and a plan 🙏.. Then maybe he doesn't see Ricky in that team as a whole.

Or maybe 1000 other reasons but because he doesn't think he is a good player surely isn't one of them.

 

Love your sense of humour btw, "bizarre mass-hand-sacrifice ritual" made me lightly chuckle

[Clever Fox]

30 minutes ago, pmcla26 said:

Winks has been poor in a double pivot for years. He's very good as a lone 6, but not suited to play elsewhere. 

I take your point but I was only referring to Saturdays game. 2nd half we struggled to get out of defence and replacing Ayew with him in the Hole ould have given us someone who could hold the Ball and bring Mav and Fats into play.

I don't think he's mobile enough to play that role regularly,  though Maddison was never quick.

 

Thankfully we held on to win but used up a lot of luck in doing so.

[pmcla26]

17 minutes ago, Clever Fox said:

I take your point but I was only referring to Saturdays game. 2nd half we struggled to get out of defence and replacing Ayew with him in the Hole ould have given us someone who could hold the Ball and bring Mav and Fats into play.

I don't think he's mobile enough to play that role regularly,  though Maddison was never quick.

 

Thankfully we held on to win but used up a lot of luck in doing so.

Tbf we could have made that same sub for Ayew but played him as a 6 and pushed Skipp and Ndidi both to 8s to have the same assets on the pitch. 

[Clever Fox]

48 minutes ago, pmcla26 said:

Tbf we could have made that same sub for Ayew but played him as a 6 and pushed Skipp and Ndidi both to 8s to have the same assets on the pitch. 

Yes true. But we needed Skipp and Wilf battling away totry and  stem the constant barrage we were under. We just needed someone who could hold onto the ball in the hole.          Skipp maybe could do that but we know what Wilf is like with the Ball at his feet.  We rode our luck but got away with it.

 

I think we can agree that the win was more to do with there poor finishing than our wondeful defending, Though there are small signs of improvement.

[davieG]

The Merc have a poll going on the season so far - https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/steve-cooper-leicester-city-hierarchy-9618824

 

one of the questions was

 

What’s been the most pleasing aspect of City’s performances so far?

 

Defensive solidity     
 
Quality in possession     

Off-the-ball work-rate     

Determination     

Set-pieces     

Creativity     

Finishing     

 

I couldn't answer it because they're all as bad as each other.

 

 

[Ric Flair]

On 07/10/2024 at 16:16, J. James said:

It's been my view for a while that to make it as a pro footballer at any level, you need to be brilliant, say 90%.

top prem players on this scale 97%

Regular prem players 93%

Managers are pretty much the same, IOW not much between any of them, its the small % that makes the difference but what makes a massive difference is - surprise surprise - money for talented players and good recruitment.

 

Both of which seem to be a little lacking atm.

 

Swapping managers is a massive risk and should only be undertaken in extremis, and that is patently not right now !

See I could disagree more if I tried. I view managers as having only a short amount of impact and if they aren't doing so then get rid and replace. Almost all of our success in the last decade or so has occurred from managers right from the off. Very few start poorly and still go on to be a success.

[LVFox]

5 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

See I could disagree more if I tried. I view managers as having only a short amount of impact and if they aren't doing so then get rid and replace. Almost all of our success in the last decade or so has occurred from managers right from the off. Very few start poorly and still go on to be a success.

Hard agree on this, decent managers have a near instant impact. Good ones last a couple of seasons, the really good ones can re-invent over 4-5 years at the same club.

 

Cooper isn't showing any sign of being decent yet to me

[Simonb]

25 minutes ago, davieG said:

The Merc have a poll going on the season so far - https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/steve-cooper-leicester-city-hierarchy-9618824

 

one of the questions was

 

What’s been the most pleasing aspect of City’s performances so far?

 

Defensive solidity     
 
Quality in possession     

Off-the-ball work-rate     

Determination     

Set-pieces     

Creativity     

Finishing     

 

I couldn't answer it because they're all as bad as each other.

 

 

If I had to select one, I'd probably go for finishing. We barely create anything so the conversion rate isn't actually too bad.. other that, nothing... unless you can throw in an 'other' and put Mads in.. easily saved us 8-10 conceded already

[Sunbury Fox]

34 minutes ago, davieG said:

The Merc have a poll going on the season so far - https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/steve-cooper-leicester-city-hierarchy-9618824

 

one of the questions was

 

What’s been the most pleasing aspect of City’s performances so far?

 

Defensive solidity     
 
Quality in possession     

Off-the-ball work-rate     

Determination     

Set-pieces     

Creativity     

Finishing     

 

I couldn't answer it because they're all as bad as each other.

 

 

Of those options, 'determination' would be the one for me. The players have stuck at it even when being totally outplayed, with the comeback to get a point against Spurs and somehow almost getting a point at Arsenal from 2 down being the prime examples. 

[pmcla26]

1 hour ago, Sunbury Fox said:

Of those options, 'determination' would be the one for me. The players have stuck at it even when being totally outplayed, with the comeback to get a point against Spurs and somehow almost getting a point at Arsenal from 2 down being the prime examples. 

I’d agree, but unfortunately it’s one of the least important ones that will contribute to a side getting enough points to stay in this league. Look at Luton last season, and you can bet Ipswich will fight until the end too, but you need a bit more than players fighting to stay up. 
 

We have the quality, it’s just not being used right. I don’t understand how Fatawu doesn’t start every game, for example. 

Edited 9 October 2024 by pmcla26

[Foxaholic ME]

21 hours ago, LVFox said:

Hard agree on this, decent managers have a near instant impact. Good ones last a couple of seasons, the really good ones can re-invent over 4-5 years at the same club.

 

Cooper isn't showing any sign of being decent yet to me

Possiblly a one off but Martin Oneil completely disproved this

[Stadt]

6 minutes ago, Foxaholic ME said:

Possiblly a one off but Martin Oneil completely disproved this

I don't think a one-off can disprove much.

 

For every good manager that was given enough time, there's probably two or three bad managers that were given too long.

[Ric Flair]

2 hours ago, Foxaholic ME said:

Possiblly a one off but Martin Oneil completely disproved this

No he didn't, he won a major trophy in his 1st full season and got promoted in the one he joined mid way through. He didn't even start that badly but just toiled after about half a dozen games and our fan base got very concerned. Unless my memory has deserted me.

[SouthStandUpperTier]

15 minutes ago, Ric Flair said:

No he didn't, he won a major trophy in his 1st full season and got promoted in the one he joined mid way through. He didn't even start that badly but just toiled after about half a dozen games and our fan base got very concerned. Unless my memory has deserted me.

MON got off to a dreadful start. No wins in his first 9 games. Took over with us in 3rd and we soon plummeted down the table. The team could barely score a goal and didn't even look like scoring.

 

 

 

[BKLFox]

It took Iraola 10 games to get a win last season and that was against a poor Burnley side, Bournemouth ended up finishing 12th.

[The Horse's Mouth]

On 06/10/2024 at 23:11, Stadt said:

During 22/23 I wanted to lose every game if it meant Rodgers got sacked. We did the losing part but not the sacking until it’s too late.

 

If Cooper is here all season we’ll be lucky to win 5 or 6 games - wanting a loss bad enough to warrant a sacking is quite rational. 

You’ve literally said in the same post that you wanted losses which happened under Brendan which didn’t result in the sack, why would it be rational to want the same thing here?  baffling 

[Lambert09]

On 09/10/2024 at 14:16, davieG said:

The Merc have a poll going on the season so far - https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/steve-cooper-leicester-city-hierarchy-9618824

 

one of the questions was

 

What’s been the most pleasing aspect of City’s performances so far?

 

Defensive solidity     
 
Quality in possession     

Off-the-ball work-rate     

Determination     

Set-pieces     

Creativity     

Finishing     

 

I couldn't answer it because they're all as bad as each other.

 

 

considering how little we rated our defence I personally think we’ve been relatively solid. 
 

Under the cosh due to the set up in most games but I personally think they all deserve some credit 

[LFEFox23]

5 hours ago, Lambert09 said:

considering how little we rated our defence I personally think we’ve been relatively solid. 
 

Under the cosh due to the set up in most games but I personally think they all deserve some credit 

I think Faes has been our best player this season, and Okoli is settling in nicely now.... My concern is defensively VK and JJ haven't been great.

 

January I really think we need to go get an experienced LB, just a real good defender... Doesn't need to offer much going forward, Let Fatawu / Mavi do all that.

[Stadt]

7 hours ago, The Horse's Mouth said:

You’ve literally said in the same post that you wanted losses which happened under Brendan which didn’t result in the sack, why would it be rational to want the same thing here?  baffling 

The circumstances are completely different. From the club’s POV Rodgers had enough credit in the bank, Cooper doesn’t.

 

Cooper winning once every eight games this season isn’t going to keep us up.

[v6rat]

Steve Cooper's Premier League record
Games	62
Won	13
Drawn	19
Lost	30

 

 

Says all you need to know, very poor record, 13 wins in 62 attempts as a Premier League manager, which he clearly isn't based on these stats.

Edited 11 October 2024 by v6rat

[Muzzy_no7]

12 hours ago, BKLFox said:

It took Iraola 10 games to get a win last season and that was against a poor Burnley side, Bournemouth ended up finishing 12th.

You could see what he was trying to do though, turning a slow and defensive side under O’Neil into a higher tempo and high energy side. 
 

Also if you have a look at who they played in the first 9 league games it really was quite ridiculous. Liverpool, Tottenham, Chelsea, Arsenal and both Brentford and Brighton away. 

[ClaphamFox]

29 minutes ago, v6rat said:

Steve Cooper's Premier League record
Games	62
Won	13
Drawn	19
Lost	30

 

 

Says all you need to know, very poor record, 13 wins in 62 attempts as a Premier League manager, which he clearly isn't based on these stats.

His nine wins in 2022/23 got them to 38 points, four points above us on 34. The following season he was sacked after 17 games when Forest had won three games and were on 14 points, five points above the relegation zone. That season he was on target to deliver 31 points, which would have meant they were still five points above the relegation zone at the end of the season (Luton were third from bottom on 26 points). In the end, Forest got 32 points under Nuno.

 

Cooper's record in his two seasons with Forest in the PL suggests he can just about keep a team above a relegation zone provided it's a generally low point-scoring season at the bottom. And lo and behold - that's exactly what he's doing so far this season with us. So it's certainly not impossible that he will keep us up this season, particularly given that it looks like being another low point-scoring season at the bottom. It's what he does.

 

The question is whether we should be aspiring for more than that - both this season, and beyond. 

[l444ry]

15 hours ago, SouthStandUpperTier said:

MON got off to a dreadful start. No wins in his first 9 games. Took over with us in 3rd and we soon plummeted down the table. The team could barely score a goal and didn't even look like scoring.

 

In fairness to O'Neill, he took over a McGhee side that was dropping like a stone and on a horrific run of results despite holding third place if I remember correctly. Don't recall it being as black or white as is often portrayed. 

[inckley fox]

15 hours ago, SouthStandUpperTier said:

MON got off to a dreadful start. No wins in his first 9 games. Took over with us in 3rd and we soon plummeted down the table. The team could barely score a goal and didn't even look like scoring.

 

 

 

And that's before we even got to the Sheffield United game!